Happy New Year ABSP members! The start of a new year means it's time for Wayne Kelly to reveal the updated titles and awards after 2024.
Firstly, many thanks to the Stewart Houten and Rachel Bingham for their parts in the maintenance of the database over the last year. This year we may very well a new ratings system and database but in the meanwhile here is how 2024 panned out regarding titles and awards.
Potential Experts for 2025:
Potential GMs for 2025:
The Highest Rated Player Award is given to the highest rated ABSP Member on January 1st of each year, provided that they have played at least 30 games in the previous year.
The winner is Brett Smitheram (199)
In Brett's first fully active year for a while, he managed 4 190+ ratings in the 4 tournaments he played with his best rating at Belfast in January.
The Most Improved Player award is given to the ABSP member (as at 31st Dec) who has a full rating at the start of the calendar year, plays at least 30 games throughout that year and improves their rating the most. The player's rating at the end of the year must be higher than any previous end-of-year full rating.
The winner for 2024 with an improvement of 27 from 69 to 96 is Lisa Atkins. Lisa played 90 games in the year and was second in last year's list with a rise of 18. This makes a 45 point leap over two years!
Four other players met the criteria and improved by at least 10:
Unweighted ratings for those with a rating over 150 plus details of highest games scores for 2024 can be found on the ABSP database. Well done to all winners - and those that missed out - keep trying!
Wayne Kelly